Detectives, doctors face off on networks
Tonight ushers in the biggest time-slot battle of the television
season: Grey's Anatomy on ABC vs. CSI on CBS.
Disney-owned ABC hopes its steamy medical drama will mean
more advertising dollars, especially from movie studios.
CBS is jockeying to maintain its dominance of Thursdays.
CBS used Survivor, CSI and Without a Trace to build a schedule
that overtook NBC.
The matchup at 9 p.m. will reveal just how wise ABC has
been in using a valuable asset and just how popular CSI
remains. CSI will start its seventh season with a two-part
mystery that features Cirque du Soleil and singer John Mayer.
Grey's Anatomy begins its third season with more romantic
problems for Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and her friends.
Technology will make it easier for fans to catch both series.
But the matchup carries bragging rights for the winner.
Each network will try to build on 9 p.m. success with a
new 10 p.m. drama. (In another risky move, CBS has shifted
Without a Trace to 10 p.m. Sundays.)
ABC is trying another sprawling serial with Six Degrees,
which comes from executive producer J.J. Abrams of Lost.
CBS is going a more traditional route with James Woods as
a flashy prosecutor in Shark.
This time, the traditional seems the likelier route to
success. Shark plays like a legal version of House. Woods
gives a terrific performance as an expert pushing young
colleagues to do better work.
Six Degrees runs on the notion that anyone can be connected
to another person through a string of six people. The good
cast includes Campbell Scott and Hope Davis, but the plots
fit together too conveniently. Six Degrees should be operating
at a higher temperature. |
